OPPORTUNITIES IN OZARKS WILD ORGANICS

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OPPORTUNITIES IN OZARKS WILD ORGANICS
www.wildcrops.com
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Conserserving Biodiversity with Certified Wild
Crops
Goods From The Woods WILDCROPS.com

• Rural Possibilities Income
• from native plants

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The Green Movement

• Safe Cosmetics and personal care
• Natural and organic personal care growth rate of
  22 5 billion. (2005)
• Nationwide herbal and botanical supplement sales
  totaled 4.8 billion in 2007, when the recession
  began, up 4.3 percent over 2006

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What Happened to increase demand for Organic
Certified botanicals growth

• studies came out about toxic chemcials personal
  care products, especially as those products also
  used for children.
• Chemical scares with lead and contimanated
  imported foods and toys.
• People want safer products and the word organic
  sales on any consumer good.
• People lost health insurance and started treating
  themselves, and now we have a major health
  concern. (Immediate demands for elderberry,
  skullcap and St. Johnswort)

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Natural Health and BeautyGrowth

• The Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) reports
  that retail sales within the U.S. consumer
  packaged goods health and wellness industry
  reached 79 billion in 2005
• Natural/organic personal care also showed a
  notable growth rate of 22, growing 5 billion.

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New Pressures

• Functional/Fortified Foods Beverages 29.4
  billion (26 growth)Vitamins, Minerals, Herbal
  Dietary Supplements 19.6 billion (3
  growth)Organic Foods/Beverages 12.8 billion
  (17 growth)Natural Foods/Beverages 12.4
  billion (11 growthNatural/Organic Personal
  Care 4.9 billion (22 growth)

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American Land Certifie For Organic Production

• Growth in Certified Manufactures and
  Handlers
• 70 to 80 of the material is not coming from
  growers, but from whole sellers

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DRAMATIC DECLINE IN CERTIFIED HERBAL PRODUCTION

• 1995 there were 90,295 certified for organic
  herbal production
• 2004 there were 5,250
• 95 reduction in certified U.S. Acrage for
  herbal Production
• http//www.ers.usda.gov/Data/OrganicHandlers/Procu
  rement.aspx

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Changes in National Organic Program

• Policy confusion about whether or not herbal
  supplements, herbal products and health / beauty
  were "agricultural products
• Said ingredients could be certified but that
  regulations or enforcement applied only to
  agricultural products, which did not include FDA
  types of product.
• Huge pressures for some US agency to regulate
  certification enforcement, will most likely be
  USDA.

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Problems in Organic BotanicalProduction

• Dealers are not willing to pay for certified
  production
• Some recent pricing
• .05 Mullin Leaf
• 1.00 Dried Witch Hazel Leaf
• .50 Witch Hazel Bark
• 1.00 Echinacea

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Problems

• Labor
• Supplier Chains
• Lack of Science!!
• Organic Processing Facilities
• Need to work cooperatively with other certified
• wild producers due to harvest limitations
• ENFORCEMENT OF ORGANIC INSPECTION
• and AUDITS, Training of Inspecters for wild crops

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WILD CROPUSDA National Organic
What is a WILD CROP Any plant or portion of
a plant that is collected or harvested from a
site that is not maintained under cultivation or
other agricultural management.
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Management of Wild Crops. 205.207 Wild-crop
harvesting practice standard.

• (a) A wild crop that is intended to be sold,
  labeled, or represented as organic must be
  harvested from a designated area that has had no
  prohibited substance, as set forth in 205.105,
  applied to it for a period of 3 years immediately
  preceding the harvest of the wild crop.
• (b) A wild crop must be harvested in a manner
  that ensures that such harvesting or gathering
  will not be destructive to the environment and
  will sustain the growth and production of the
  wild crop.

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International Standard for Sustainable Wild
Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants
ISSC-MAP). 1. The plant population would
not decrease because of the collection. 2.
Neither methods of collection nor the quantities
harvested impair the plant species ability to
regenerate. 3. Sustainability of a certain
harvest quantity was determined by an independent
expert. (We hired a restoration ecologist to
assist with our yield per acre targets.) 4.
For each plant/part of plant a detailed
description of the collecting methods was
included used for witch hazel and expanded to
St. John's Wort. 5. For each plant/part of
plant there is the need to define how much of
each plant/of the whole population can be
collected without endangering the whole plant
population. 6. The collection does not damage
other plants nor encourage erosion.
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Our Wild Harvest Plan

• Before and after harvest photos GPS coordinates
  for daily harvest records
• Log of daily man hours per harvest area (because
  people can only harvest so much per man hour)
• Hired a restoration ecologist to determine
  sustainable harvest yields projected of plant
  species, impacts on water shed and other species
  in the habitation.

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Certified 200 Species

• Listed everything we
• Thought might be reasonable to harvest.
• Then develop the harvest plan and be accountable
  during audits.

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SARE Assistance

• For 2008, we targeted 500 lbs per acre This
  target ended up being highly conservative and
  four times that material could have been removed
  without compromising the sustainability.
• 647 wet lbs of Witch Hazel
• 20 man hours from 3 acres of certified organic
  forest, for an average of 32 lbs per man hour.
• 8 lbs per gallon and was used to create a total
  of 60 gallons of witch hazel hydrodsol.

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Witch hazel
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Witch Hazel Used Than Any Other Botanical
Ingredient In The World

• Bath Splashes Conditioning Bath Gels
• Foaming Skin Cleansers
• Clear Bar Soaps
• Hand Lotions Creams
• Silicone Barrier Creams
• Shaving Creams
• -
• Analgesic Creams, Lotions Gels
• Psoriasis Creams
• Insect Bite Relief Products
• Topical Antibacterials

• Suntan Lotions
• Depilatories
• Skin Refreshers
• Soothing Foot Soaks
• Pharmaceutical
• Antiperspirant Foot Sprays
• Sun-Blocks (Sunscreens)
• Germicidal Skin Cleansers
• Acne Care Products
• Skin Protectants
• Personal Cleansing Pads Mouthwashes / Toothgels
  Antiperspirant Sprays

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Our on-farm processing facility
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Challenges Had to make our own equiptment and
modify for Organic certification
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Packaging

• Mailing Liquids
• Organic quailty
• Customer Expectations
• Setback with HDP

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Cannot Meet Demands of mid to large manufactures

• Calls ever week, 1,000 gallons plus requested
• Want 50 lb plus lots of botanicals
• Not capable of working in at this scale

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Small BusinesssStart ups wanting to produce
certified organic product

• Private Lable Natural Health and Beauty
• Bath Body Care
• Baby Care
• Aromatherpay
• Handmade Soaps
• Herbal balms and salves
• Herbal Home Pet Care

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Other Partners and Harvests

• Wild Harvested Yarrow Floral Water 220 wet lbs
  of yarrow flowers were harvested over the course
  of 30 man hours from approximately 1 1/2 acre of
  uncertified land for an average of 7.33 lbs per
  man hour. This raw material was distilled at a
  rate of 8 lbs per gallon and was used to create a
  total of 4 gallons of yarrow hydrodsol and 1 oz
  of essential oil.
• Man hours associated with value-added production
  included processing raw material for
  distillation, loading the unit, monitoring
  quality, decanting, clean up and record keeping.
  This would account for approximately 4 hours per
  run and a yield of 4 gallons of floral water and
  45 mils of essential oil in the distillation.
  This floral water was offered in 1 pint
  containers at 12.50 (800.00) and the essential
  oil was sold in 1 mil vials for 5.00 per vial.
  Approximately 1/2 (100.00) of the essential oil
  was sold with the remainder going for personal
  use and free samples to potential clients. Total
  gross value 900.00, 7 man hours. This product
  was popular and certification was not paramount
  to selling the material. The value of the harvest
  was purchased from the farm at 1.50 per pound.
  Approximately 198 lbs of material was frozen and
  has not been distilled

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Other Farms and Findings

Yarrow Flowers Hickory Nuts Mondarda Fistulosa
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Separating EOs
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Yarrow

• Excellent Profit, but unless there is either 20
  plus acres of easily collected material or other
  wildcrops populations w/ the farm plan,
  certification is not that important.
• This is a potentially worth while certified
  property.

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Hickory Nuts

• Hickory Nuts 12 man hours were spent collecting
  327 lbs of shagbark hickory nuts on approximately
  3 acres. From these nuts, approximately 35 lbs of
  hickory nut meats were produced and sold for
  12.00 per pound. The nut meats were obtained in
  the course of watching football on Saturday and
  Sunday. It took approximately 2 hours to shell
  one lb of nut meats. These nut meats were sold at
  12.00 lb for a gain. However, not all the nuts
  were processed into nut meats and the ratio of
  raw nuts to nut meats runs about 3.5 lbs to 1.

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Wild Foods as a supplemental Income

• Farmer's Markets
• Resturants
• Very Happy to get wild foods
• Certification not important as face to face sales
  were the key
• Berries Mushrooms Nuts and Spring Greens

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Monarda Fistulosa

• Monarda fistulosa 63 lb of flower heads were
  harvested over 8 man hours. Distillation has not
  been completed. The material has been frozen for
  future work.

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Market Issues Must Value Add
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Mondarda Fistulosa

• Anti bacterial
• Anti Fungal
• Anti Virous
• Floor and Carpets
• Cleaning Products

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Criteria For Wild Crop Certification

• Economy of Scale
• Must have labor
• Must have cental wild product on land
• Processing facitity a must
• Shared facility
• Value Added Product
• No Wholesale to botanical buyers

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Certification for GROUP Processing

• Central Processing Facility to serve all wild
  crop farms.
• Not feasible for each farm to develop their own
  processing when starting.
• GFTW Cert was on-farm only and to start, other
  certs too costly.

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Group Harvests, shared products from land
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People pick from certified property

• U- Pick
• Herbal Tours and Native Plant Education
• Core group of friends working to develop products
  and using private lable agreements

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Advantages to Farmers

• NO INPUTS!!!!!!!!!
• Dried or fresh product can be stored(frozen)
• Easy shipping
• Distillation can be done year round
• LIGHT WEIGHT!!!!
• Many Choices for value added materials
• Expanding market

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Community benefits of Wild Organic

• .
• Land use industrialized vrs. Sustainable
• Protecting Habitat through reconnecting small
  farmers to native plant species.
• Connection between human's economic needs and
  development

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Our Favorite!!

• http//www.ifcae.org/cgi-bin/ntfp/db/dbsql/db.cgi?
  dbproduiddefault

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Washington, D.C. May 5, 2009 ? USDA today
announced a special three-week sign-up for
farmers in the process of converting to organic
farming to receive technical and financial
assistance through the Environmental Quality
Incentives Program (EQIP), a move applauded by
the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
and its grassroots member organizations across
the country. Monday, May 11 and goes through
Friday, May 29. Six core conservation practices
(conservation crop rotation, cover cropping,
integrated pest management, nutrient management,
rotational grazing, and forage harvest
management) are being made available to
transitioning organic farmers on a nationwide
basis.
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Added value
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Our present production still

• food grade stainless steel

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We produce essential oils or EOs and hydrosols or
floral/herbal waters.
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Essential oil
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Hydrosol
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Decant oil
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Harvesting Wild Plum Flowers
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100 Essential Oil of Yarrow
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Questions?